Thursday, November 11, 2010

This truly autumnal cupcake is chocked full of warm spices like cinnamon, ginger, clove and cardamom. I topped it with a masala chai frosting to complement the spices in the cupcake.

Chai is the generic word for tea in many South Asian countries. So when you hear someone say "chai tea" they are actually saying "tea tea" without realizing it. In America chai usually means masala chai which is a brewed tea with spices, some kind of sweetener and milk.

For my frosting I began by making a custard. That may sound a bit strange, but it's something I've been trying out lately when making frosting. I steep warm milk with a healthy dose of my desired flavoring (like tea or coffee) to create a fragrant and flavorful brew. I combine it with egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch and cook it until it becomes slightly thickened. Then I beat the custard until it cools down before adding the butter.

I have used this custard method frosting with loose tea leaves, coffee beans or fresh herbs like mint and thyme. This time I took a short cut by using spiced black tea bags instead of using loose black tea leaves and whole spices and it worked pretty well.

chai custard

The tea custard base makes for a very rich and silky buttercream frosting that has a lovely spicy tea flavor and isn't too sweet. This frosting might be a bit too soft to hold its shape after piping so if you're hoping to do that, you can always leave out the 2 tablespoons of honey and mix in 3 or 4 tablespoons (or more if you like) powdered sugar to help stiffen up the frosting.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Mix in vanilla.

Fill each well approximately 2/3 full. Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then gently transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

Combine the milk in a medium nonreactive saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. After the milk has come to a simmer, remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the tea bags to the milk. Cover the pot to keep the milk warm. After the tea bags have steeped for about 5 or 6 minutes, gently squeeze the tea bags to extract all the liquid. Discard tea bags.

Whisk together the yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl.

Slowly whisk the still warm milk into the egg mixture then return the mixture to the saucepan and set over medium heat. Begin to whisk. Continue whisking for about 3 to 5 minutes or until it has the consistency of pudding. To test for doneness, coat the back of a spoon and draw a line with your finger down the middle of the custard. The custard is done if the line stays in place.

Strain the custard through a fine-meshed strainer into the bowl of a stand mixer. (Straining should catch any clumps of cooked eggs. You don't want that in your buttercream.)

Working with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, beat the custard on medium speed until it is cool, about 4-5 minutes. Add the butter 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until smooth.

Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium speed until it is thick and very smooth, about 5 minutes. If your buttercream looks curdled just keep beating and it will become smooth. Add the honey and beat for another minute.

You should have a smooth and silky buttercream. You can now frost your cooled cupcakes.

20 comments:

Wow delicious! I like the idea with the custard based topping. Sounds like it's not that sweet and looks very creamy. Yum! I also love the taste of chai. Lately a new granola came out in Germany, that has a chai flavour. I love it, especially enjoyed with warm milk.

This sounds wonderful. I have a weakness, one of my many, for all things Chai flavored. I've never heard of a custard based frosting, but seeing as how normal buttercream style frostings have never showed me much love or creamy yumminess, I'm excited to give it a go. Thanks for posting this.

Thanks for the recipe, just tried these out. The cake is perfect, fluffy and subtle. I was not crazy about the buttercream, like the fluffy kind. Am going to try the cupcakes filled with the masala chai pudding, a bit sweeter version, and a different frosting on top.

The alpine strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is a cousin of the wild strawberry. It's sometimes simply referred to as alpineberry. I love to bake, cook and garden. My blog is a place to share my recipes and other tiny tidbits of my life.